Golden Nugget’s Sue Long, mother of co-owner Justin Long, advises a client with different CBD products. (The Enterprise/Pat Caldwell)
ONTARIO – It’s a first for Malheur County: a boutique health store dedicated to cannabis products that are not marijuana.
The Golden Nugget CBD store in Ontario has recently opened and held a grand opening celebration Saturday, April 13.
The store features products made with CBD (cannabidiol), a natural compound found in the hemp plant. Although hemp is in the same family as marijuana, it contains very small amounts of THC – the component in weed that gets people high.
“Usually whenever I tell anyone new to this about CBD, I first tell them, ‘It doesn’t get you high,’” said Jenny Long, who co-owns Golden Nugget CBD with her husband, Justin Long.
From oils and tinctures, to hard candies, capsules, even dog treats, the products are marketed to many conditions, including anxiety, depression, loss of appetite, body aches and joint pain.
Long and her husband found success with the family’s first Golden Nugget location in Sumpter, which includes a marijuana dispensary and coffee shop. The couple also ran a mini coffee kiosk in Huntington, adjacent to the 420Ville marijuana dispensary. Now, they want to expand their business to Malheur County.
The Longs said the idea for the CBD store came about after their plans to open up a marijuana shop fell through.
“Basically, we weren’t able to get a dispensary in Ontario,” Jenny Long said. “We were going to partner with Happy Hippy and have a dispensary in their complex…but we got buffered out.”
However, Long said she’s excited to bring Golden Nugget CBD to Ontario.
Long’s current team includes her husband, her mother and longtime friend Alan Archuleta, who is also a military veteran.
“There’s currently only four of us since we just opened, but we are planning to eventually add two or three more employees,” Long said.
The cannabis boutique held a soft opening March 22. Since then, Long said the number of customers coming through their doors increases each day.
“We get a mix of people who have tried it and they come in with testimonies. We also have a lot of people who haven’t tried CBD products before,” Long said. “What we really like to do is educate them. We try our best to pair them with a product that works for them, based on their tolerance and needs.”
On Saturday, April 20, another CBD specialty store opened its doors in Ontario. The opening of Hotbox CBD on the corner of Idaho Avenue and NE 2nd Street is just a glimpse of the green wave to come.
From left: Alan Archuleta, Sue Long, Justin Long and Jennifer Long work in partnership to run the Golden Nugget CBD store in east Ontario. (The Enterprise/Pat Caldwell)
Reporter Kristine de Leon: [email protected] or 541-473-3377.
For the latest news, follow the Enterprise on Facebook and Twitter.
TRY A FREE SAMPLE – You can see for yourself the kind of local news reporting produced by the Malheur Enterprise with a news team focused exclusively on news that’s important to you. You can read us for free for 30 days. Signing up is easy and then you have 24/7 access to our reports. Sign up HERE. Or you can support some of the nation’s best journalism by subscribing to our digital news service for $5 a month, easy and automatic. Subscribe HERE.